BooksBarbecue
Back Reverie Save as PDF
Chapters (53)
  1. Front Cover
  2. Letter from the Author
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Contents
  6. • One •
  7. • Two •
  8. • Three •
  9. • Four •
  10. • Five •
  11. • Six •
  12. • Seven •
  13. • Eight •
  14. • Nine •
  15. • Ten •
  16. • Eleven •
  17. • Twelve •
  18. • Thirteen •
  19. • Fourteen •
  20. • Fifteen •
  21. • Sixteen •
  22. • Seventeen •
  23. • Eighteen •
  24. • Nineteen •
  25. • Twenty •
  26. • Twenty-One •
  27. • Twenty-Two •
  28. • Twenty-Three •
  29. • Twenty-Four •
  30. • Twenty-Five •
  31. • Twenty-Six •
  32. • Twenty-Seven •
  33. • Twenty-Eight •
  34. • Twenty-Nine •
  35. • Thirty •
  36. • Thirty-One •
  37. • Thirty-Two •
  38. • Thirty-Three •
  39. • Thirty-Four •
  40. • Thirty-Five •
  41. • Thirty-Six •
  42. • Thirty-Seven •
  43. • Thirty-Eight •
  44. • ∞ •
  45. • Thirty-Nine •
  46. • Forty •
  47. Epilogue
  48. Acknowledgments
  49. Excerpt from Be Dazzled
  50. One
  51. Two
  52. About the Author
  53. Back Cover

The soldiers shifted as a cluster of girls marched from the aircraft. They were dressed in brightly colored bouffant dresses that matched the satin scarves adorning their pinned-up hair. They all wore large, bug-eyed glasses. They didn’t walk so much as they swayed through the rain, their pastel umbrellas breaking apart to reveal their centerpiece: Ursula, mobbed in pink, her height identifying her immediately.

“Read them their arrest bill,” ordered Smithe.

Ursula clearly didn’t know where to get this bill, so she very confidently put out her hand in the hopes that someone would hand it to her. Very politely, one of the other girls reached into Ursula’s own purse and took out a tablet, turned it on, and put it in Ursula’s hand.

“If we make it out of this, we need to make Ursula take an improv class,” Adeline whispered to Kane.

Ursula shouted into the rainy yard. “It is with our most profound regret that we, The Rectification Committee of Our Lady Miss Smithe, Obedient of Holy Society, leader of…”

While Ursula read, Kane watched Sophia pull her revolver from her back holster. “Stay out of the rain,” she whispered.

Ursula moved on to the charges. “I, Miss Buffy Crawford, hereby charge you with acts of blasphemy against Holy Society, the endangerment of a Noble, and the possession of an artifact contrabanded under penalty of Corporeal Refinement.”

Sophia pulled the trigger, cutting the air with an electric screech as lightning arced from the barrel. It webbed through raindrops and sunk into the puddles. The soaked soldiers seized, their weapons firing in their hands as they fell. Some of the girls fell, too, leaving Ursula exposed.

“Eat shit, socialite!” Sophia cried, cocking the revolver and firing again.

Ursula was forced to block with a shield, but she must have been holding back, for the shot carried her right off her feet and into the hull of the aircraft, lurching the upbeat music. Ursula fell to the soaked pavement, groaning. Sophia aimed again.

Kane punched the green button, lurching in front of Sophia.

“Leave her!” he cried. Ursula wouldn’t fight. He couldn’t let his best friend die so that his sister could live. “We need to go. Now!”

Sophia holstered the gun, annoyance cutting her voice.

“To the Doom we go, then,” she said, and they rocketed away from the skipping music.

• Thirty-One •

The Doom

Kane shot after Sophia and Adeline, pushing his cycle to top speed as they plunged into the milky glow of a desolate downtown. Fumes from the cycle filled his nose, and the engine screamed with throaty solidity, almost covering the sound of the aircraft flying over them. They sped from the main road onto narrow side streets, swinging out onto a boulevard split by a placid channel. Kane slid over the water, cutting a wide wake as they shot beneath bridges.

“The lights are up ahead!” Sophia called over the splashing. “Get ready!”